Canadian Prairie Storms Pages

Thursday, July 06, 2017

Destructive Tornadic Storms - July 5, 2017

The day started off very early with morning convection just north of Regina which brought intense lightning and pea size hail to the area from 5:30am to 7am. I managed to snap a few photos and videos as it passed by.

This was as the sun rose at 5:30am looking north east from downtown Regina:

It actually began to gain strength at 6am when I started shooting this video from my deck:

After a couple hours and a report of pea size hail east of the city, it died out. Then we waited with great anticipation for what was to become the main event later in the afternoon. At 4:33pm clouds began to twirl and spin by, showing the incredible instability that was in the atmosphere mixing with extremely high CAPEs (Convective Available Potential Energy). This video was shot off my back deck (time-lapse 32x speed), facing south east:

Echo Tops radar began to show the progression of the birth of tornadic supercells at 5:50pm from Dauphin, Manitoba to Carlyle, Saskatchewan:

Within only a few minutes, what was only a few blips on radar suddenly became severe warned thunderstorms. Image from 6:20pm:

The first of many tornado warnings was issued near the radar site of Foxwarren, Manitoba:

By 7:30pm SST (8:30 CDT or Manitoba Time) echo tops indicated a fully formed tornadic supercell covering the area along the southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan border:

By 8:24pm SST (9:24 CDT) there were 4 active tornado warnings in Manitoba and 1 in Saskatchewan. The one in Saskatchewan would prove to be the main producer on the extreme south west corner of the supercell. Greg Johnson tweeted out this photo at 8:57pm SST (9:57 CDT):

Finally, Dan Lindsey and Atmospheric Scientist from NOAA/NESDIS tweeted out an incredible image from the newly launched GOES16 Satellite, dubbed as the future of weather observation and forecasting. This is the new high resolution animated satellite image of tornadic supercell over southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan:

Kayaking, bird watching, fishing and wildlife photography are my summer hobbies when waiting for storms. See my adventures on YouTube!

I build a daily map of storm risk for the Canadian Prairies to accomplish two things. One, translate the complications of the meteorologists into something simple that the public can understand clearly. Two, become a buffer on social media to either raise the alarm and calm the masses depending on the level of hype.

Storm chasing is limited nowadays to a few photo ops by the lake at Wascana in Regina or up north at Pratt. Generally, I spend more time nowcasting for chasers around Saskatchewan which saves on gas and keeps me safe in my studio/bunker.

Once storm season comes to an end in August, gaming season then begins. Find me on Twitch.com/jaredmysko playing non-violent games like Forza and FIFA.

Thanks for all the likes, shares, comments and encouragement. Stay safe and enjoy the weather!